Well guys I've been on a quest for a spotting scope for several years now for both range work and spotting and field judging game at extended ranges. I searched and read reviews for months last year and set myself a max budget of $600 for this year and hoped to not spend all of it. What I came up with for the two highest rated in terms of customer reviews were the Alpen 20-60x80 $479 and the Celestron Regal M2 ED 80 $589. They both have really high reviews with many comparing them to the $1200 range of scopes. BUT, as life has a way of doing my budget has been smashed. I still wanted a scope for this season so I went back to reviews and came up with the Konus 20-60x80 $200 on sale right now, and the Celestron Ultima 80 $169. They both have really high reviews also with many reviewers comparing them to the $600-$800 scopes. I would have went with the Konus except it only has a 2 year warranty and several people complained of the foot breaking. The Celestron has a lifetime warranty and the biggest complaint was a very slightly gritty zoom and less eye relief than the Konus. The foot breaking on the Konus and the no questions lifetime warranty on the Celestron kind of made the decision for me. Soooo, my Celestron Ultima 80 should arrive tomorrow. I know there are a lot of us out there who can't afford the Swarovski and Zeiss scopes so I plan on doing a fairly thorough review on the functionality of this scope for my two primary jobs for it. If I have time I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow.

Post photos, I have a couple different spotting scopes none are what one would call outstanding. Thanks for the info.SeeyaMark

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

Finally got some time to reduce the pictures. I took these pictures in the middle of the day, about 2 pm. It was bluebird skies and 90 degrees so there were a lot of heat waves and distortion. In the 546 yard picture area I could see acorns on the trees in the clear moments between the waves

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Here is the last picture. I took this picture in the evening after the sun dropped behind the mountain. With no heat waves the image was very clear and stable and I could see acorns on that oak tree at 750+ yards. I didn't have my rangefinder but it was significantly farther than the previous pic at 546 yards

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A little update. I finally got a chance to range the tree in the last photo I posted. The tree is 780 yards.

I was using my spotting scope last week to look a few mountains over. This was in the evening after the heat waves had died down. On the side of that mountain ridge I could see well enough to make out the smallest twigs of the trees and make out leaves well enough to differentiate species. My 800 yard rangefinder would not pick up anything over there so I was sure it was past 800. Recently I found an app that measures distance on Google earth type photo maps. According to that the trees I was looking at through my scope were 1,150 yards away. A Swarovski this scope is not, but the more I use it the more pleased I am with it. I feel confident that it will perform well at filling my needs. I really believe I will be able to field judge bucks to at least 1000 yards which is as far as I'd be shooting at one anyways.